A new generation of tools based on SDL combines graphical easy-to-learn management of software with automatic generation of documentation and modifications. The code is optimized for embedded applications and for testing by adding the real-time elements needed for embedded systems. Unlike some other formal languages, SDL has been designed for general, real-time, event-driven applications.
SDL is based on the idea of communication between extended finite-state machines running in parallel. An SDL system consists of four basic elements. Block diagrams show the functional and hierarchical structure of the system. Process diagrams show the dynamic behavior through…

Your hard drive never seems to fail at a good time. Usually, you’re up to your eyeballs in work and the last thing you need is a broken computer.
Alas, Murphy and his Law are always looking for opportunities like these. In the event that your hard drive fails, it’s important to get your head straight and go into problem solving mode.
To help you out, here are four tips to help you deal with a hard drive failure.
LESS PANIC, MORE LOGIC
Mac’s classic question mark is a good sign of hard drive failure.…

While corporations are rapidly adopting CASE tools to build business applications, it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate among the offerings. Many CASE tools boast flashy graphical interfaces and claim support for the entire life cycle. Others tout code-generation capabilities, support for reverse-engineering and project-management facilities.
To match the tool to the needs of your organization, look for something that will give you the most bang for the buck. As summarized in the figure, this is achieved by tools that address the following criteria:
— a graphics-style user interface;
— support for the entire life-cycle…

“We look for applications to be integrated into a solution, not the other way around,” says Deresinski, who has spent most of his 13 years in the printing industry working with computers and networking systems among web, sheetfed, and digital houses. “We can’t say, ‘I’ve got Linux–that’s what I want on my prepress network,’ unless we have programmers out there to write the programs for us.”
A key component to Lake County Press’s configuration is built-in redundancy, which eliminates the risk of downtime anywhere in the plant “Everything from our servers to our network switches…

(Awesome stuff!)
Is Java nothing more than the beanie baby of programming languages?
Really?
Java may indeed be man’s best response to the age-old problem of creating cross-platform networked applications, but much of its current momentum builds on a very dubious characteristic of human beings– the herd mentality, or the tendency to be taken in by fads.
That was one of the clearest conclusions to emerge from a report conducted by Zona Research at the behest of Softbank Forums, which is organizing Java Internet Business Expo, to be held in New York from Aug. 25…

Some aspects of the Java language are very attractive to embedded designers, especially when compared with the other object-oriented alternative: C++. According to Carl Dichter, senior technical marketing manager at Intel Corp.’s Appliances and Computing Division (Chandler, Ariz.), under Java it is no longer necessary to think about the size of variables, the byte-order in which data is stored by the processor, and which functions are available and how they operate differently on different platforms. Nor is it necessary to concern oneself with the different ways to allocate memory or figure out where to free…

As you are about to leave the office for a 10 o’clock business appointment with that important client, you do a quick checklist to ensure that you have everything. You open your briefcase and there it is — your notebook. Yes, you have everything.
For most business people, that one piece of equipment holds every needed bit of information required to perform their job outside of the office.
According to Peter Bassani, an account executive with Markham, Ont.-based A.C. Nielsen Market Research, the portable computing market has changed drastically in the last five years. The…

So something has gone wrong with your hard drive and you do not know what to do. Here are some of the most common reasons for hard drive failure.
Head/media collisions are responsible for a great number of hard drive malfunctions. Because there is more than one hard disk platter very close to each other, rotating at a rate of 150 times per second, even the slightest disturbance could make the disk malfunction. When dust settles on the magnetic surfaces after entering the sealed drive unit, it gets stuck between the head and the disk…

A simple laptop enclosure adapter
Most laptop owners think that laptop hard drive recovery is a very costly thing to pay for. This is actually not a situation to panic, and really isn’t as expensive as many users assume at the outset. But this job is known as something that requires high technical skills. But, with the right tools and the knowledge about the tools it is an easy task. It is just a matter of having the knowledge of how to recover the data from a dead laptop hard drive. And in the case…

Microsoft won another marketing battle in the object wars last week by finally agreeing to submit its ActiveX technology to the Open Group for ratification as a de facto industry standard.
ActiveX in the house!
Although the software giant has criticized such organizations in the past for being too slow and unwieldy, it has ostensibly handed its object crown jewels to a body packed full of Unix rivals which will help develop, brand, test and license them
The Open Group will receive source code, specifications, reference implementations and validation tests. In return, Microsoft will get…